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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

This was my original selection for this past ABF recital until it was superseded by Danny Elfman. It was recorded just before the recital submission process began, but the video was not edited until just recently because of my procrastination.

Not an award winning performance by any means, but I'm just happy to have recorded it and be finally done with this.

TX-Dennis Thank you Dennis. The hidden story of this video is that this recording was just meant to be a sound test. I was setting the video stuff and I sat on the piano just to check whether the sound levels were correct. I had not even rolled up the stores to provide some decent light. And, voila! I went on playing and I happened to like it once I finish.

After that first test, where I was playing without the pressure of the red dot, I tried for a couple of hours to record a version with more light to improve the video quality. I failed once and again and eventually I decided to settle on the first video, the one that was not meant to be recorded.

CMohr: Thank you very much indeed. I felt frustrated ---limited frustration though, this is meant to be a hobbie--- when I was not able to meet the deadline for the last recital. I had worked through the most difficult fragments of the invention but I could not play well enough the last bars, which are not particularly hard but those former difficult fragments took too much time to be able to submit a decent recording. A few hours before the time limit I strived to get a decent recording but the pressure made me fail once and again on the last bars.Bitterly, the next morning I could play those last bars well enough to attempt a submission, but it was late then.

I'm happy to see this bar open 24/7 so I can share with all of you the results of so much work. It was tough to get that invention on the fingers. There's a lot of work yet to polish it though.

Edited by mcasl (08/23/1007:19 PM)Edit Reason: I write bad English at first sight.

Hola, mcasl! Isn't is great that the AB forum has the piano bar? The recitals do put added pressure on us, but still fun. I just wish I had more pieces well in hand so I could join the piano bar more often. I'm glad you put yours here for all of us to hear!

BEN-Great work! I really enjoyed the second movement. You have a very nice touch. So, what's next for you? More Clementi? (without the shaking fist? or in spite of it?) You really are a joy to listen to.

BEN-Great work! I really enjoyed the second movement. You have a very nice touch. So, what's next for you? More Clementi? (without the shaking fist? or in spite of it?) You really are a joy to listen to.

Thanks, I appreciate the comment!

Yes, I decided to subject myself to more self abuse and am working on Clementi's No. 3 from his Op. 36. The powers that be declared it the same difficulty as No. 2, so I'll see how that goes. Thanks again!

To celebrate the fact that I can now play again, I recorded a simple classical piece that I learned as a youngster. The doctor told me that I can now play piano, "but no Rachmaninoff." I've only worked on this for a couple of days, so it's not perfect. Please forgive the clipping on the loud bit.

al-mahed, I don't recognize this one. Who is the composer? edit - nevermind, I looked it up; Chopin, of course. It's a beautiful piece, and it sounds rather challenging to play well. You've made a wonderful start on it. There are not "tons" of mistakes - some, yes, but not tons. I want to hear this again when you "finish" it.

al-mahed, I don't recognize this one. Who is the composer? edit - nevermind, I looked it up; Chopin, of course. It's a beautiful piece, and it sounds rather challenging to play well. You've made a wonderful start on it. There are not "tons" of mistakes - some, yes, but not tons. I want to hear this again when you "finish" it.

Oh, sorry Dennis, I didn't put the composer's name! Mazurkas are usually a Chopin thing, I don't know if much more people after him (or even before) wrote so many mazurkas.

Anyway, about finish it, I think it will be not possible . What I mean is: this is by far the most challenging piece I ever learnt in terms of expression. Of course to hit the notes correctly is also pretty difficult. But, the thing is: if you play exactly what is written the piece sounds kind of dull. You need to add a lot of "you" in this piece, and every single recording of this piece I've heard is different in a lot of expresion details: rubinstein, pletnev, horowitz, Lupati, etc, etc, etc, all of them play it in a different and very particular way (of course it is true to any piece, but the differences are bigger on this one).

So, I don't think in terms of "finishing it". It is really a lifetime thing. I always play it differently and I didn't find "me" on this piece yet. But, of course, in terms of correct technique, I hope to "finish" it soon enough!

Thanks for the comments Bill, joyoussong, and al-mahed. The finger isn't fully healed. I still have to wear the splint for work, but I can take it off at home unless I am lifting heavy objects - so it's definitely on the mend.

al-mahed, yes, this is my Kawai GE-30 baby grand (5'5"). I had the recording level set a bit too high and caused a bit of clipping on the loudest part.